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“Are you alright?” she asked, waving her hand in front of his eyes.

He blinked, then winced, placing one hand against his head. “Ow.”

To her relief, he started treading water of his own accord.

“Are you alright?” he croaked.

She nodded. Physically, she was alright. But the reality of her situation was so dire that she dared not think about it, lest she lose all hope and offer herself to the sea to escape. She’d vastly underestimated Polinth, and paid the price.

They swam to shore in exhausted silence. Riella crouched on the sand, coughing up the salty water she’d swallowed. Jarin lay on his back panting, his eyes unfocused.

With her remaining energy, she crawled to him and collapsed by his side. The last thing she remembered, as her eyes fluttered closed, was an unusually vivid blue star shooting through the black sky.

CHAPTER 27

Riella’s head throbbed.

She was lying on her back while being bounced around without pause, making her whole body vibrate unpleasantly. Opening her eyes revealed little. A dark fabric canopy stretched above her, sunshine darting through the cracks. Her pulse quickened. Where was Jarin? Was he alive? Moreover, where on earth was she?

“She’s awake.”

The voice was a man’s—quiet and unfamiliar.

Wincing at the ache in her head, she sat up. Three men huddled on wooden benches in the small space. Jarin lay unconscious on one of the benches.

Riella stood to go to him, but fell straight onto the slats of the floor. Through the gaps in the floorboards, the rocky dirt ground moved rapidly beneath them. She was in a cart pulled by horses, whose hooves clopped on the road.

But who were these men?

“Your friend’s alive,” said one of them. “We gave him a dram for the pain. You can wake him up if you like, but he’ll be sore.”

She shuffled to Jarin and leaned over him. His chest rose and fell steadily, and there was color in his face. The gash on his head had closed, leaving behind an angry red line.

“How long was I unconscious?” she croaked at the men. “Where are you taking us?”

A bald older man answered, who looked vaguely familiar. “We found you both on the beach this morning, in pretty rough shape. Couldn’t just leave you there, but we need to return to Klatos. Been stranded out here in the settlements for over a week now. We thought we’d take you with us.”

The other men grumbled something bitter and surly, not meeting Riella’s eyes.

The older man spoke over him. “And we’re happy to do it, too.” He gave her a kindly smile.

“That’s a siren,” spat one of the others, raising his voice. “And a bloodthirsty pirate. Savages, both of them. We ought not to harbor them. Dunno why you’d take the risk.”

“Don’t be silly,” replied the bald man with a chortle. “Sirens don’t have legs. And your so-called pirate won’t be thirsty for your blood—not in his condition. We believe in doing good deeds, don’t we?”

He winked at Riella and suddenly she recalled how she knew him. This man was the captain of the fishing boat she hauled to shore right before Polinth captured her. Had he recognized her? Was he trying to return a favor?

“Where are you heading?” he asked her. “We’ve just set off not ten minutes ago. Took us some time to get your friend into the cart, the huge lad he is.”

“Oh, um. The pine forest?” She didn’t know its name. “It’s off the main road, a few hours away. There’s a small bay and the trees are dark.”

He started nodding before she’d even finished speaking. “I know it. We’ll let you out there, no problem.” He stuck his head through a flap in the front of the cart and relayed instructions to the driver.

“Thank you,” she said when the man retook his seat.

Without anything to distract her, except for the nauseating and incessant bumping of the carriage, Riella dwelled on her imminent demise. Her insides were a tempest of conflict and feeling—for herself, for Seraphine, her siren friends, and Jarin.

In the privacy of her own thoughts, she wished she had more time with him. She’d grown attached to him. It was a new and foreign feeling, and already she grieved that she wouldn’t get to explore it properly. There were many things she didn’t want to say goodbye to, but Jarin was fast becoming number one. Her heart felt linked to his in a mysterious, invisible way. Death would sever that link, she supposed.